Families of bullied students offered heartbreaking testimony at a public hearing Wednesday night for the state's new anti-bullying task force.
As it looks for ways to improve how school districts address the rising instances of bullying, harassment and intimidation.
It comes as the state has faced an onslaught of severe bullying incidents and complaints.
New Jersey's anti-bullying laws aren't doing enough to protect the students who are targeted.
Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports.
We must do better.
We must help our babies.
We are failing miserably at protecting them.
Her voice broke as L.A. Law Albo told New Jersey's anti-bullying task force about her late daughter Felicia, the 11 year old sixth grader, a student in the Mount Holly School District, died this past February.
After enduring relentless bullying, her mother said.
My daughter, Felicia Mel, attempted suicide by hanging herself in her school bathroom, which later resulted in her passing on February 8th.
We send our children into these schools for an education, not so they can be tormented and ignored.
This panel's tasked with making changes, recommending improvements to New Jersey's anti-bullying Bill of Rights Act, enacted in 2011.
They called this hearing so we can hear some more powerful stories of students, staff and families.
And better ways that we can help.
They listened as families, educators and officials told those stories.
Many asked for stricter guidelines to hold school districts more accountable for reporting so-called harassment, intimidation and bullying or HIB events.
I think having some type of audit system for our policies would be really helpful.
Sweeping under the rug just enables them to have better funding.
Parents like Nicole Nicholas also asked for better enforcement of school reporting guidelines.
Her eight year old son Matt is disabled and a target of bullying, she told the task force.
My son is trying to scratch and self-harm himself.
I know it is a direct result of bullying.
I will never forget the hurt he felt in being ostracized at that school.
She's pulled him out of classes in the Willingboro school system.
What wasn't happening?
The investigations were taking place.
I'm still waiting for hints from March, and they still haven't been done to this day.
So now a new academic year.
My child is starting on home now because he does not feel safe at all at school.
We reached out to Willingboro and Mount Holly school districts for comment but got no response.
New Jersey has been rocked by recent high profile student bullying and suicide cases, including Adrianna Cook in Berkeley and Mallory Grossman in Rockaway.
Both of those cases also involved cyberbullying kids posting on social media.
Task Force Member Stuart Green.
We need to be holding social media companies responsible.
Ever since they began, they've been profiting like crazy off the suffering of kids.
They've been completely irresponsible.
Some witnesses said schools need more resources to deal with the rise in students mental health problems.
Other witnesses complained New Jersey needs to broaden its rules, which require a distinct classification such as race or gender, for events to qualify as bullying.
Lauren Cohen took her daughter out of public school.
The staff knew it and they did nothing.
I was told, Mrs. Cohen, although your daughter is experiencing bullying, she's not protected because she's not different.
The task force advised parents they couldn't intervene in individual cases.
The task force will issue a final report with its recommendations to the governor and the legislature by the end of this year.
In Trenton, I'm Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight News.
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